Half Dome at sunset with a bright moon in front of its face

Here's a full moon rising next to Half Dome, Yosemite National Park. I, Rick, was actually leaving Yosemite after a day visit and decided to stop at the Tunnel View for one last look at the valley. Some people off to the left were pointing somewhat excitedly, but I couldn't figure out why, at first. Then I saw the moon rising, so I rushed to a spot where I could get the best angle. The red light of the setting sun contrasted well with the bright moon.

I did some adjusting of brightness and contrast and worked specifically on the area within the moon to bring out the details, but nothing was repositioned or added to the image.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

A Setting Moon Over the Tetons

After waiting in line to get into the Jenny Lake Campground early one morning, we got to witness the setting moon over the Tetons the following morning. Grand Teton itself isn't in the picture, however, the moon is over Mount Owen. The taller mountain to the left is Mount Teewinot. It turns out that these two mountains block your view of Grand Teton, so anyone driving into and hiking around the Jenny Lake area can't see Grand Teton. Rick was just walking around the campground area and happened to look toward the highest mountains and noticed the moon there. So he rushed back to the car to get the camera and get some photos before the moon set.

The image was taken at ISO 100, f/16, 1/60 sec, with a zoom of about 4.5 power.

Remember, it's not just a story, it's a story!

Nearly full moon setting sequence over the Grand Teton summit, Wyoming

On the first morning of our recent Teton/Yellowstone trip we were up in time to catch the moon setting over the Teton Range in Grand Teton National Park.  Bob caught the following sequence of the moon setting where it passes behind the summit of the Grand Teton peak itself.  Mount Owen is to the right, which, along with the peak called Teewinot constitutes the group of peaks known as the Cathedral Group.

We were set up at the Mountain View Turnout along the Teton Park Road to photograph the moon's setting.  The mountains are especially red because of the rising sun which was also helped by a forest fire in this region. At the same time we also saw the sun rise over Jackson Hole as you can see in the photo we posted earlier.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Great American Solar Eclipse from central Oregon

The solar eclipse during totality, with a couple of small stars shining below and to the left of the sun. Outside the frame of this picture, Venus and Saturn were also visible. Rick viewed the eclipse from central Oregon from Beech Creek Summit, near John Day, Oregon. The summit is actually north of the small town of Mount Vernon, Oregon, along Highway 395, but John Day was the biggest town in the area and it's where he camped. His fellow eclipse viewers at the summit were from parts of America, like California and Washington state, plus Germany, and Ireland. The diamond ring effect that you see just before totality starts and just as it is ending can't be compared in a photograph to the actual experience of seeing it. The best I can say is that when you see it in person, the little diamond sparkle is still bright enough to blind you. The corona itself is very bright and seems to display threads of light that don't show in typical photographs that well, but it also makes witnessing the eclipse in person a more dramatic experience than viewing a photo of it.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

It was totality worth it! A vertical photo of the solar eclipse over the Tetons.

Here's another shot of the eclipsed sun over the Teton peaks as seen from Table Mountain.  Bob backpacked to the top of Table Mountain in the Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area in order to see the solar eclipse from the classic view of Le Trois Tetons made famous by William Henry Jackson.  He was a photographer on the earliest survey expeditions of the Yellowstone and Teton areas and took some of the first photographs of the Tetons from Table Mountain.

The black dot in the sky is the moon eclipsing the sun.  The horizon in all directions looked like the sun was setting, even though the sun was high in the sky.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

It was totality worth it! The total solar eclipse over the Tetons August 21, 2017

This is a still from the video I, Bob shot of the total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 with my GoPro Hero 4 Black.  I've posted that video on our YouTube Channel.

I backpacked in to the Jedediah Smith Wilderness Area on the west slope of the Tetons to the top of Table Mountain to observe and record the total solar eclipse with the classic Le Trois Tetons view for the landscape.  The small black dot surrounded by white in the upper middle of the frame is the moon eclipsing the sun.  The three main peaks on the horizon are the Grand, Middle, and South Tetons.

This was a totality awesome experience.  I could see the moon's shadow completely blacken Teton Valley and Driggs, Idaho to the west as it raced toward me and then the sun became totally eclipsed.  The partial eclipse didn't seem to be that much different from a regular sunny day, but totality was an eerily freakish experience.  The sun's corona lit the earth around me with a kind of light I had never seen before.  Also, the horizon in all directions looked like sunset even though most horizons never get a setting sun, plus the sun was still high in the sky.

It was totality worth it!

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

The Moon rising in the Yosemite area before sunset

The nearly full moon will rise before the sun has completely set. Here's a picture in the Yosemite area taken from Yosemite Valley looking southeasterly at the rising moon with the landscape still being lit by the sun. We were in Yosemite to get moonbow pictures. Fortunately we were there early enough to get the moon rise, as well.

Camera was set at f/4 and 1/60 sec and was handheld. The ISO wasn't recorded. This image was taken using an ultra-high definition camcorder that can also take 20 megapixel stills.This was originally a 20 megapixel still image, but has been cropped and then resized for our blog.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

A Mono Lake Tufa Tower "Pinching" the Moon

On our return from a trip to Death Valley, we camped south of Mono Lake, on the east side of the Sierra. Mono Lake is famous for its tufa towers, calcium carbonate structures that formed underwater, now exposed due to Los Angeles diverting 4 of the 5 fresh water streams that flow into the salty lake causing the lake level to drop. We were up early enough to get sunrise shots and while taking pictures of the tufa towers reflected in the water, we noticed that the moon was setting. Rick positioned himself near this tower that had two peaks that appeared to have a pinching action, so it would appear that the two peaks are pinching the moon between them.

The image was taken before 8 AM on March 27th, 2016 as the sun was rising to light the tower's east face and the moon was setting in the west. The camera settings were f22, 1/30 second, and ISO 100, with the camera set on a tripod and using the timer function to allow the camera to be still.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Mono Lake tufa tower pointing at the moon

It's all a matter of perspective! While returning to Sacramento from a trip to Death Valley, we stayed for one night in the Mono Lake area so that we could get early morning images in the Mono Lake basin. From the south shore, at what used to be the state park, we hiked out to the shore to look at the features and set up our tripods for photos of the lake and the tufa towers. Along the way, Rick noticed that the moon would be setting as the morning progressed and wanted to include it in some of his pictures. He lined up this image to include a tufa tower and the moon so that the tower appears to point to the moon. The early morning sun was lighting one side of the tower and the moon appears to be immediately above it.  In this shot, the moon appears to be the yin yang symbol.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Half Dome accompanied by a nearly full moon

Yosemite National Park's most famous landmark, Half Dome, accompanied by a nearly full moon in spring. On Half Dome, the small feature that protrudes from the top edge is called "The Visor." We've been to the top of Half Dome three times and each time we've heard people refer to that feature as "The Diving Board". But the "Diving Board" is a feature along the same ridge as Half Dome but is well below and not part of Half Dome. Ansel Adams took a famous photo of Half Dome from the Diving Board called "The Monolith."

To get this image, we stood in the Ahwahnee Meadow 2 nights before the actual full moon hoping to line up the eastern edge of Half Dome with the moon as it rose. A night or two before the full moon is often best for these kind of shots because the sun will still be up enough to light the scenery you want to include with the moon. Especially in a steep place like Yosemite Valley, waiting until the night of the full moon to try a get a photo that combines the landscape with a rising moon will be more difficult since the sun will have already set by the time the moon is high enough to be seen with the landscape.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Yosemite Falls by moonlight, reflected in Cook Meadow's pool, with the Big Dipper above

This image was taken in June 2011,  when there was still a large pool in Cook Meadow. We tried to get pictures of the moonbow in Yosemite Falls, the lower end, then moved back farther, to the Sentinel parking area, to see if the upper falls showed a moonbow, as well. After getting out of the car, Rick noticed that Yosemite Falls was being reflected in the pool. After spending some more time examining the scene, he noticed that the Big Dipper was just above the falls, as well. This image is the result of 3 images being merged seamlessly together, was lit by moonlight and each image was taken for 30 seconds. You can see the reflection and a little of the bottom of the pool at the same time. It has been cropped to an 11x17 ratio.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Yosemite's Half Dome with a nearly full moon rising during the winter

During a winter cross-country skiing trip, we were out during the time that the full moon wold be coming up alittle before the sun would set completely. That's what made this shot possible. To have the foreground lit up with the moon in the distance, you have to be out one or two days before the full moon. The Glacier Point Road is closed to cars during the winter, so one has to ski, snowshoe, or snow boot travel from Badger Pass to Glacier Point, a distance of about 10 and a half miles, one way. We camped out in the snow for one night, before heading back to Badger Pass.

In this image, you can see Half Dome, the Clark Range to the right, with Tenaya Canyon and North Dome to the left. The image is the result of merging 4 separate images together to get more detail.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Trona Pinnacles in the Mojave Desert of California. Where the remake of "Planet of the Apes" was partially filmed.

The Trona Pinnacles are in the Mojave Desert of California. They were formed while underwater in the ancient Searles Lake, which is now completely dry. Where the towers form represents freshwater springs that spewed calcium-enriched waters into the carbonate-laden mineral waters of the ancient lake. Calcium and carbonate combine to form calcium carbonate, the same material that makes up sea shells and cave formations. Mono Lake is famous for its tufa towers that are still forming. The ones at Trona that formed under Searles Lake can't grow anymore.

A few years ago, the Planet of the Apes movie was remade and some of the scenes in that movie were filmed among the Trona Pinnacles. We've also seen some commercials  with these pinnacles in them, as well.

We often stop by the Trona Pinnacles on our way to Death Valley National Park. The small town of Trona is south south-west of Death Valley and along the route from Ridgecrest, Highway 178. The dirt road out to the Pinnacles comes off of Highway 178 and crosses railroad tracks. This area is not a National Park, but is Bureau of Land Management land. They don't have the restrictions that a park would have in effect, so people can drive right up to the features and hike around them. There have been mines here so a visitor should use caution when exploring. Camping isn't allowed, though.

The last time we drove through here, the full moon was about 4 days away, so the nearly full moon was rising well before sunset. We looked at the moon and the pinnacles from several angles. Rick liked this one with the moon between a couple of the pinnacles as a dramatic shot.

Remember it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Yosemite Falls, upper and lower, with a lunar rainbow, or moonbow, with stars.

The mist from Yosemite Falls can turn moonlight into a moonbow, or lunar rainbow, around the time of the full moon. It also depends on how much precipitation the area had during the winter and sping, since the misting water droplets coming off the falls is what separates the white light into the spectrum of colors. The moon-caused bow is dim enough that human eyes can't distinguish the colors. We have rods and cones in our eyes, cells that respond to light. The rods respond to brightness and don't detect color, but the cones do respond to color, but only if their light has enough intensity. Moonlight isn't usually intense enough to trigger the cones. When looking at this moonbow, we only saw an arc of ghostly white light, but the camera's time exposure, 30 seconds, does pick up the colors that our eyes can't see.

This perspective also includes the upper falls and stars so that it's easier to tell that it was taken at night. To get here, you have to be willing to do a little scrambling off of the paved path over granite that is sometimes slick, right up to the base of the cliffs, but it's well worth it. You also should bring along a dry cloth to wipe the droplets off of your lens, since it will get wet. Wearing rain gear to keep yourself dry and protected from the wind is a good idea, too. Waterfalls create their wind. The falling water drags air down with it. 

This image was two shots, lower and upper, then merged together to create one larger image. The two were taken on June 2, 2012. We tried again this year, 2013, but last year's results were better.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story!

Half Dome and a nearly full moon rising in the notch, Yosemite

Ansel Adams had a classic Half Dome with a nearly full moon shot that he took in 1960. He was a master at bringing out the details in a photographs bright parts, called highlights, and the dark parts, called shadows. The parts of a picture that are between the highlights and shadows are called midtones. Ansel Adams' shot was also done as a vertical, with just the edge of the north side cliff showing along the edge of the frame.

Having been to the top of Half Dome 3 times, we wanted to a get a similar shot, but with one improvement. Before climbing up the cables to the top of Half Dome, you have to go over a smaller feature referred to as the Sub Dome, then you drop into a saddle to arrive at the base of the cables. From Ahwahnee Meadow, you can see the Sub Dome to the left of Half Dome and the saddle between them forms a notch. We've thought for some time that a potentially better Half Dome and moon shot would have the moon rising up out of the notch. In March of 2010, we went to Yosemite with rainbows in Yosemite Falls and moon next to Half Dome shots in mind. It was on that trip that we captured the image above, which was done as a horizontal shot. It turns out that we were standing in almost the same spot in Ahwahnee Meadow where Ansel Adams stood when he took his photo in 1960.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Yosemite Falls double moonbow

If you arrive in Yosemite in spring and early summer and around the time of the full moon, you might want to hike to Yosemite Falls and view a moonbow, or lunar rainbow or a waterfall mistbow. A moonbow is a rainbow caused by moon light, rather than direct sunlight. When viewing this phenomenon, your own eyes can't see the color of the spectrum showing through the mist of the water, but when you take a long exposure, 20 to 30 seconds, with your camera, the colors appear in the final image. The night of the full moon is the brightest, but up to 2 days before or after the night of the full moon will also work.

To work on this image, we went on the night of the full moon and lower Yosemite Falls was very crowded with photographers. A lot of people know about this event now. Many saw some good results. But this image was captured the night after the full moon. Rick went back the next night and almost had the place to himself, and the double moonbow was already showing as soon as he arrived. To make sure people viewing this image can tell that it was taken at night, we included some of the sky with stars showing at the top of the frame. 

One of the great challenges of taking this sort of image is that you need the mist from the falls in order to get the moonbow, but then if the mist reaches high enough, it can make the rest of the image look fuzzy. There's also a very good chance that you'll get wet during the process of capturing the image. Including stars in the sky helps convince people that the image was taken at night, but a very long exposure can allow enough time for the Earth's rotation to cause the stars to become streaks.

You can get predictions for this year's (2013) best moonbow viewing dates and times from the Texas State University's Astronomy Department's web site. The direct link to this year's moonbow in lower Yosemite Falls is at: uweb.txstate.edu/~do01/moonbows2013loweryosemitefall.html.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!